SHIRINE GILL

I do not have a singular visual language. My work is very intuitive. I drift from abstraction to realistic photography to collage with paper cutouts. My abstract work intrigues me the most. I like the experimental aspect of playing with a variety of materials (light, fabric, paper and glass) to create compositions that blur the boundaries of photography, drawing and painting. My goal is to create images that have not existed before. The majority of my abstract work is about form, color and line, most of which are independent from visual references to the outside world.

Creating retinal excitement concerns me more than meaning. My images both allow for, as well as resist, definition. I revel in distorting reality beyond recognition. I welcome accidents; chance is an important part of my work. I cannot predict particular outcomes until the experiment is finished.

I do not like to work in any specific work-space. A studio creates anxiety in me. I am a nomadic artist. Working digitally enables me to work anywhere. My environment and the evolving available materials, inform my work. Discovering new materials is an exciting part of the work’s unfolding.

My process is Intentional Camera Movement. This process requires long shutter speed. Movement and an open shutter allow me to create painterly and impressionistic images. Camera movement makes colors bleed into each other, and create dynamic lines and patterns from rather simple light sources.

Digital photography has facilitated my experimentation and allowed me access to new photographic terrain. Its immediacy can be doubly overwhelming though. The ease of production creates hundreds of similar images. The taxing nature of editing can be extremely laborious, but this too, is part of the artistic process in identifying the most compelling imagery. One has to become a brutal editor to avoid the pitfalls of repetitious images.